Gear still available in the webstore. Also available from Lost Art if you are in the U.K. and from Frisco in the Netherlands if you need that European shipping. Should be available from Boneyard Supply for anyone in Australia soon. Our new stuff probably won’t debut during fall fashion week, but it’ll be out sometime in the fall.

Slap is returning to print for a special ad-free edition to commemorate its 20th anniversary. How is everyone supposed to complain about skate-related minutiae on a bunch of stapled-together pieces of paper though?

Spot Updates: 1) The building mounted chairs in the landing space for the frontside for regular three-stair ledge at “the grey ledge spot.” Going to be tough to skate now. 2) The rail is back on the backside for regular side of the FedEx six-stair ledge.

Power has been back since Friday night. (Some places in outer boroughs still don’t have lights.) Hope everyone is doing alright. This is only the beginning of the recovery from this storm; can’t imagine the longterm economic impacts of this, especially for people who own small businesses, etc. that were affected by it.

On a skateboarding end, everything is still a bust. Everyone got out there thinking security would be mellower, but it most certainly was not. We (tried) skating downtown on Friday and midtown yesterday, and got kicked out of things we normally don’t get kicked out of, sometimes by police who under normal circumstances would not say anything. After two days of research, we can conclusively say that Manhattan (below Central Park) is more of a bust post-Sandy. Not that skateboarding has any priority at a time like this, but this is a skate site.

NJ Skateshop is working with the skate industry on a clothing drive for skaters in New Jersey whose homes were badly hit by the storm.

Here’s a trailer for J.P. Blair’s video, Outdated, which premiered at House of Vans this past Thursday. If you missed that premiere, NJ Skateshop in Hoboken is holding another one this Saturday (March 24th) at 8 P.M. Since it’s unlikely that this video will ever make it to DVD (Jersey Dave insists otherwise…we’ll see), did anyone happen to bootleg it?

Biebel: The new Steinbeck? Frozen in Carbonite digs deep into Brandon Biebel’s past, present, and inevitable future as a life coach. “If one sits down at a bar stool in Anywhere, USA, one needs to be able to discuss the Steelers running back situation and/or the latest 2 Chainz mixtape and/or the various implications of the NBA trade deadline.”

Contrary to some misinformation that we had a crucial role in spreading, Billy Lynch was never “missing,” but merely skating an underground bunker somewhere in Long Island and touching up on backside noseblunts.

Black Dave reminds you that he’s gonna shine, and that you should grind hard 100% on anything you do in this life. “Who filmed that video?” “I made my girl film that shit.” God bless him.

Sweet Paradise officially R.I.P. Thanks for the memories. (If anyone has the picture of Galen passed out in the back on his 24th birthday that wound up on the Arab Parrot, I’ll buy you a beer if you e-mail it to me.)

Nothing happens in August. There are even guides on how to look busy at work in August. The same applies for skate media. You’ll have to pardon some of the inclusions if they are not of the “breaking news” variety…

R.I.P. éS Footwear. Though not as heavily romanticized as the Koston 1s and 2s, the 3s were big in New York back in 2001-2002. In further influence, Menik Mati was pretty much the Jaws of skate videos, in that it provided the blueprint for blockbuster skate video productions for over ten years, a format that is only now beginning to wane. Here is Boil the Ocean on that same subject (#25.)

Quote of the Week:
45-Year-Old Man Wearing a Du-Rag: “Aren’t you too old to be skateboarding?”
22-Year-Old Josh Velez: “Aren’t you too old to be wearing shants? There are pants and there are shorts. Pick one.”